“Writing,” said lawyer Abraham Lincoln in 1859, is “the great invention of the world.”[1] From ancient times, the writer’s craft has captivated leading figures in literature, non-lawyers who are remembered most often for what they wrote and not for what they said about how to write. Their commentary about the writing process, however, seems unsurprising...

History of the Conflict

According to the Tennessee Supreme Court’s opinion in Gunter v. Lab Corp. of America,[1] the Tennessee Medical Malpractice Act (TMMA)[2] applies to all allegations that bear a “substantial relationship” to the rendition of medical treatment by a medical professional. Additionally, a claim will also be considered...

No series of columns on Tennessee legal history would be complete without one relating to my hometown, at least no series written by me. By hometown, I do not refer to Chattanooga. While I have been a proud member of the Chattanooga Bar for 30 years and have lived on Signal Mountain for 24 years, my true hometown is Soddy-Daisy, which lies in Hamilton...

The Tennessee Bar Association was recognized in October with three Luminary Awards from the National Association of Bar Executives. The Tennessee Bar Journal earned a Luminary Award for The Law Launch Project, which followed 15 law students through their last year of school.

Nashville lawyer Jeremy H. Cherry has been named a partner at Ortale, Kelley, Herbert & Crawford, where he handles residential and commercial real estate, commercial lending, corporate law, probate and estate planning. Cherry received his law degree in 2002 from the University of Tennessee College of Law.

Wyrick to lead TBA in 2013-2014

Sevierville attorney Cynthia Richardson Wyrick will be Tennessee Bar Association president in 2013-2014, according to election-qualifying results released Feb. 16. No other candidate filed for the vice president position by the Feb. 15 deadline. After serving a year as...

Former Criminal Court Judge and TBA senior counselor FRED A. KELLY died Sept. 27 at the age of 93. Kelly graduated from the University of Tennessee and later served in World War II, earning the rank of captain. He graduated from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1948 and began practicing law in Gallatin. A native of the city, he went...

Reinstated

On Feb. 16, Weakley County lawyer Kyle Eric Crowe was reinstated to the practice of law subject to four conditions: (1) compliance with a Tennessee Lawyers’ Assistance Program monitoring agreement, (2) repayment of funds currently in his trust accounts that are owed to others, (3) working only in a supervised setting...

Corporate crime is big news. Lawyers practicing in Tennessee face an increasing likelihood of being asked to assist business clients in responding to an allegation of criminal wrongdoing. To protect the business and to avoid inadvertent harm to others (and your license), counsel must both understand the attorney-client privilege of an organization.

Few fields of law are as heavily influenced by history than that dealing with banks and other financial institutions. Since the earliest days of the Republic, this country has had a dual or overlapping system of state and federal chartering and regulation of banks, and while there may be those who wonder why this odd method of establishing banks remains...

In Los Angeles on Wednesday morning, Jan. 15, 1947, a female body was found in a vacant lot on Norton Avenue. The corpse was completely severed at the stomach. She was Elizabeth Short (age 22), known as the Black Dahlia. America’s coldest cold case has never been solved.* But the first suspect was cleared by a lie detector.

For nearly 40 years, the most powerful man in Tennessee was a lawyer and farmer from Somerville. His name was John Wilder. Guvnah Wilder, that is. From 1971 through 2007, John Wilder served as Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee. Governors came and went. Democrats had majorities in the legislature, lost them, and then got them back. Republicans held...